MOTORCYCLING: Team-mates have mixed bag of results at Cadwell Park

The two draperRacing riders had conflicting Bank Holiday weekends at Cadwell Park.

East Kirkby’s Tommy Philp was unlucky to finish his first British Supersport race just outside the points.

Then, in the feature race, when in a strong 12th place, he fell – unhurt, but his race was finished early.

Team-mate Aaron Clarke, from Kirton, secured his best finish of the season in the Superstock 600 class to bring some well-earned championship points home to the team.

Philp encountered problems during free practice and, just a few laps into the second session, he was forced out with an engine failure.

This left the team with a huge job to replace the engine overnight and have the Yamaha up and running in time for qualifying on Sunday morning.

The team worked hard and, although the engine was unproven, Philp was able to go out in qualifying to post a good time which gave him an 18th-place qualifying position and a sixth-row start to his sprint race later in the day.

As the race got underway, he remained in 18th place through the first five laps before moving up to 17th on lap six of 12.

He completed the race in a lonely 17th place, just outside the points but after all the problems encountered on Saturday it was a good result.

Starting the 16-lap feature race from the seventh row, Philp got away to a good start and by lap three was up into 15th place.

On lap five he moved up to 14th and then to 13th on lap 10.

But with three laps to go he overtook Bjorn Estment and was carrying a bit too much speed going into Park Corner and slid off the track, his race over.

Philp said: “We haven’t had that much track time all weekend, three laps in free practice one then just two in the second session.

“We had to change the engine and then messed around with the gears, suspension and forks to try to get some stability.

“In that second race the front kept washing out and then I got past Estment but was on the dirty part of the track and out braked myself.

“I just slid off on to the grass so no real harm done except that I didn’t get a finish. Roll on the next round so I can start again.”

Clarke was going well throughout the weekend and qualified in seventh place, his best qualifying of the current campaign.

He got away to a good start from the head of the third row and moved straight into sixth on the first lap.

The pace was hot and he was soon overhauled by Scott Deroue and one lap later was relegated to eighth by Tom Oliver.

But Clarke never gave up and chased after the leaders, putting a four-second gap between himself and George Stanley.

On lap six he caught and passed Oliver and got his head down to try to catch Deroue, who was 1.2 seconds ahead.

He brought the gap down to less than a second but two riders further down the field crashed and this brought out the red flag on lap eight.

Because they had passed the two thirds distance marker a result was declared and Aaron was awarded seventh place, his best ever result in the series.

“That was a good race,” said Clarke.

“I got duffed up a bit on the first lap when someone crashed in front of me but I managed to stay with the front group throughout the race.

“I could see the rider in front was looking tired and thought I would be able to pass him but the red flag put paid to that idea.

“It’s a shame as if I could have got past him I was not far away from the next rider.

“But that was a brilliant result for me and I can’t wait to get to Oulton for the next round.”